The municipality of Eindhoven has the ambition to be an energy-neutral city in the period 2035-2045. Under the heading 'Smart Sustainable Municipal Buildings' (SVGG) the !MPULS consortium is therefore making 7 municipal buildings in the Eindhoven city center more sustainable, including the Van Abbemuseum: one of the leading museums for contemporary art in Europe.
To properly protect the art in the Van Abbemuseum, the climate in the exhibition halls and depots is carefully conditioned 24 hours a day. In 2016, the municipality of Eindhoven – owner of the building – closed it !MPULSE a 10-year agreement for, among other things, the maintenance and management of the museum's climate installations. But how do you approach it when the control system for climate and lighting needs to be replaced?
Trudy van de Meerakker, facilities manager at the Van Abbemuseum: “Our last major renovation took place in 2002. Then our old building was modernized and a large part of new construction was added. The 18-year-old measuring and control technology was outdated and spare parts were becoming increasingly difficult to find. There was no doubt that innovation was necessary. In addition, a new control system would directly contribute to sustainability and energy savings; the goal of SVGG. But in a dynamic museum environment like ours – where climate is your most critical component – we wanted to exclude risks by planning the project early and very carefully.”
With colleagues from the collection management, security and technology department, she had many conversations with the building automation specialists from Kuijpers, who sat down at the discussion table for !MPULS. After thorough research, it turned out that the replacement work could be carried out in phases, without closing the museum completely for a certain period. “Provided we approach this together with a lot of care, dedication and commitment,” she says. “And that's exactly what we did.”
Nederlands